People v. Willmon
People v. Willmon
Opinion of the Court
Defendant Craig and his codefendant Willmon appeal from a judgment entered pursuant to a verdict of the jury finding them guilty of grand theft and burglary. Willmon’s appeal appears to have been abandoned and hence must be dismissed. We therefore have confined this opinion solely to the contentions raised in the Craig appeal.
At the outset .of its brief, respondent points out that the judgment appealed from was filed on October 3, 1958, and that the notice of appeal was entered by the clerk on October 14. Respondent feels compelled to so state in order that “. . . the jurisdiction of this court can be properly established ...” The record further shows that following the filing of said notice, and pursuant to a request by Craig, this court appointed counsel to represent him on appeal; that following the filing of respondent’s brief, Craig filed with this court an affidavit wherein he avers that on October 10, 1958, while in custody at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, ”... I went to the legal clerk’s office at the Reception Guidance Center . . . and I wrote a letter to the County Clerk of Sutter County stating that I wished to appeal my case ... I handed the letter to the legal clerk the morning of October 10, 1958, and he said he would mail it out right away. When the letter was in fact mailed I do not know. If it had been mailed on the 10th, it would have reached the Sutter County Clerk on or before October 13, 1958.” No counter-affidavit or other evidence in opposition has been tendered by the respondent.
This court is thus presented with a situation not wholly unlike that in People v. Tapia, 174 Cal.App.2d 52 [344 P.2d 33]. There it was held under similar circumstances
Subsequent to his assignment to represent the appellant, counsel informed the court that he had examined the record, particularly in light of Craig’s contentions that the personal property alleged to have been feloniously taken was obtained by the police unlawfully and that the court erroneously instructed the jury, and found no merit in such contentions. Our independent examination of the record compels a like conclusion.
On the night of July 23, 1958, one Lester Rose left his locked airplane at the Tuba City airport. Inside the plane were clothing, blankets, a portable radio and various items of fishing tackle. The following morning Rose found that the door handle had been forced, the plane entered and the above-mentioned articles taken. He reported these facts to the Tuba City police department. On the same night one Robert C. Thompson left a large number of tools in a shed on a ranch of which he was the superintendent. The next morning the tools, valued in excess of $200, were missing. He, like Rose, reported the theft to the Tuba City police. The information supplied by Rose and Thompson was given to sheriff’s officers who had previously been advised by one Mrs. Dauzat, the operator of a motel, that twice during the night in question she had observed two men carrying boxes into one of the motel units. This unit was rented to a sister-in-law of the defendant Craig. Mrs. Dauzat’s testimony was that she had observed a Chevrolet owned by the defendant’s sister-in-law enter the motel grounds with its lights off; that two men alighted from the vehicle and carried something which sounded like tools into the motel; that thereafter the two men came out of the unit, entered the vehicle and drove off, again without lights; that approximately 45 minutes later she observed the car, still
It is Craig’s first contention that the trial court committed error in admitting into evidence the articles alleged to have been stolen, since these articles had been taken from the motel apartment without the aid of a warrant, and thus the burden was upon the prosecution to establish justification for the
When a defendant consents to a search his constitutional rights are not violated, and any search and taking of evidence pursuant to such consent is not unreasonable. (People v. Michael, 45 Cal.2d 751, 753 [290 P.2d 852].) Here the record shows without contradiction that the evidence admitted over defendant’s objection was obtained in the course of a search to which the occupants of the premises freely and voluntarily consented. Hence such evidence was admissible as against the defendants.
The defendant’s further contention is that the trial court committed prejudicial error when it instructed the jury in the manner by which it should return a verdict to the offenses charged. The portion of the rather lengthy and comprehensive instruction given by the trial court relied upon by the defendant is taken completely out of context. When the instruction is read as a whole, it cannot be said that defendant was prejudiced thereby.
The appeal of the defendant Willmon is dismissed, and the judgment of conviction of defendant Craig is affirmed.
Van Dyke, P. J., and Schottky, J., concurred.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.